The King has recently managed to obtain a ring; by fair means, of course, since he is a good king. This ring, ancient and arcane is not just nice to look at. It also has, within it the amulet of a Type IV demon, Yohozrimul. Realising what he had acquired, the King at once began to search for ways to summon the demon, thinking that with the amulet, he could bind the denizen of the Abyss to his service and overcome his enemies (who were, at that time, manifold). The king managed to do so and Yohozrimul was bound to royal service.

However, the ability to wield power far beyond the means of mortal man was rather intoxicating to the King, who – being a nice chap – had never really thought about all the advantages that an ally from the lower planes could provide. Yohozrimul, on the other hand, was well aware of the old dictum about power corrupting. He decided to try and win the King’s soul for his demonic masters by slowly working to prise the monarchy away from light and into darkness.

He has had considerable success. The King is well on his way to becoming a sybaritic despot who prefers the pleasures of the flesh to the rewards of virtue.

This has not gone down at all well with his nobles and courtiers. The King’s increasingly erratic behaviour and his arbitrary cruelty towards those who oppose him have alienated virtually everybody except the most sycophantic. They’ve decided that it’s time for the King to go but unfortunately, the presence of the demon is complicating matters and making it very difficult to arrange a little ‘accident’ for the King.

Aware of the fact that his operations will have created bad feeling amongst the courtiers and nobles, Yohozrimul has also been courting support amongst other members of society – namely the scholars and sages. His ability to change shape, along with his infernal connections and linguistic abilities has meant he is able to obtain rare scrolls and books for them, thereby keeping them on side. As far as they know, he is just a well-read and sympathetic scholar but there are rumours of wild parties in a wing of the palace to which a select few are invited.

Suave, sophisticated, cultured, well-spoken and thoroughly evil. Yes, this shape will do nicely.

Into this nice little imbroglio come the party. There are several options for an introduction to the situation.

1. The party has been hired to steal the ring from the King. This may be at the behest of another demon who fancies his chances in becoming the King’s BFF, or perhaps somebody at court has put two and two together and identified the ring as the problem, without realising that a demon goes with it.

2. The party has been hired to assassinate the King. Their employers are not fully aware of the importance of the ring and will not think to mention it to the party. Yohozrimul is believed to be just a meddlesome human who would not be missed if he got in the way of a crossbow bolt.

3. The King has got wind of the plots that are hatching in the palace and worries that he and his new friend are short on protection. The party is hired to safeguard both the King and Yohozrimul without having the faintest idea who Yohozrimul really is.

4. In the course of his cosying up to the palace scholars and sages, Yohozrimul has inadvertently stolen a very valuable scroll and its original owners want it back. It might be the assassins’ guild, the thieves’ guild or just a powerful and angry collector. Whoever it is, they will pay the party to recover it and punish the thief.

Whichever scenario it is, the party are going to have problems because Yohozrimul has learned a great many things during his studies, including some neat psychological tricks that can probably outwit the less sophisticated parties. It will also use its many abilities to confuse and faze attackers, changing shape and causing illusions wherever will be most effective. The royal court is full of officials, functionaries and flunkies. Yohozrimul will know many of them and can use this knowledge to his advantage when causing confusion and trouble for the party.

However, all this new knowledge and intelligence have had their effect on Yohozrimul. It has firstly increased his vanity, since he now considers himself a sophisticated, urbane and well-read man about town. He is far less likely to use violence as a first resort, preferring to toy with his opponents in a way that a cat and a spider might do if they were working as a team. He may be vulnerable to flattery and the lure of knowledge and sophistication can be used against him.

There is also the problem (for Yohozrimul, anyway) that with his immersion in the world of learning, study and academia, he is becoming less chaotic and more lawful in his evil – not a fact that is going to please his demonic masters.

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About Me

Over halfway to 90, I started playing AD&D when the Police were a cool band and Punk was wild. I am a father to a ten-year-old Junior Grognard and have now managed to establish a five-strong gaming group made up of him and four of his friends, ages ranging from 10 to 11. Solidly Old-School.
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